Love in a Snowstorm

Love in a Snowstorm

By Maggie Gray

I think we learn by trial and error. I think we gain our best knowledge when falling on our face, making a hard decision, or sometimes just old-fashioned guesswork. The snow is falling hard right now. It’s the time of year when my heart sings. Looking out at the soft flakes floating through the air, I don’t think about the wet snow piling up or the hard work ahead of me to clear my driveway or sidewalk. All I see is white grandeur and I am thankful I am alive to live another winter’s day.

I watch my neighbors snow blowing and shoveling and as I join the ranks earnestly removing the white stuff, all I want to do is throw myself onto the soft pristine white blanket and make snow angels. I don’t care about inconvenience or frozen fingers. I don’t care about neighbors thinking I must be crazy as I push my shovel through the snow and stop to listen to the absolute silence. If you hold still, you can hear the snowflakes hit the ground. If you watch closely, you can see the snowflakes dance and swirl until they land.

Have you ever hiked through the woods in a storm? If you’re very quiet, you can hear the flakes hit the trees. You can listen to the birds and often you can experience a hush that can move you to tears. If you lift your face and allow the snow to hit your face, you feel alive and refreshed. You can’t help but feel so lucky you have another winter, another season to find joy. The earth is now wrapped in a glorious white blanket and you can’t help but be happy you have your senses - to feel the cold, to taste the snowflakes, to see the whiteness of fresh snow, and to feel the softness of a new winter season.

Every season brings change. Whether it’s spring with the emergence of new life, summer with starry warm nights and long days, or fall with the golden hues of a glorious sunrise, winter is exhilarating with frosty windows and cold wet noses. The other day while shopping I was now seeing Christmas items in the aisles and Christmas music. It occurred to me that except for the commercial aspect of seasonal change, what type of music can change your mood or elevate your day? Hmmmm. Spring? Nope, can’t think of a song. Summer? Maybe a Beach Boys tune. Fall? Nope, can’t name one. But my my. Once it snows, there’s such a rush of emotions! As I sign off to each of you from this writing, with my now frozen cold wet nose wrought by the frigid winter wind, all I can think of is John Lennon - more a poet than a musician, an eternal soul with visions beyond his death. Lyrics to his beautiful song - “So This Is Christmas” say so much more than I am could ever express, pen to paper, but in his way, to you, in song:

So this is Christmas

And what have you done?

Another year over

And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

The old and the young

A very merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas

For weak and for strong

For rich and the poor ones

The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white

For yellow and red ones

Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas

And what have we done?

Another year over

And a new one just begun…

 

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